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Happy Birthday, Bob!

Bob Dylan
William Claxton
/
Courtesy of the artist
Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan turns 82 today, so we're taking this opportunity to celebrate some of the legendary songwriter's music, as well as covers of his work over the years.

Born in 1941 in Duluth, Minn., Dylan has a discography that's been covered by a wide range of musicians drawing from many genres: The Byrds, Nina Simone, Guns N' Roses, Cat Power, Jerry Garcia, Eddie Vedder, and Rage Against The Machine.

Then, of course, there's the unquestionable brilliance of Jimi Hendrix's "All Along The Watchtower," which has influenced the way Dylan himself performs the song live.

"My old songs, they've got something — I agree, they've got something," Dylan once said in a 2016 Rolling Stone piece by novelist Jonathan Lethem. "I think my songs have been covered — maybe not as much as 'White Christmas' or 'Stardust,' but there's a list of over 5,000 recordings. That's a lot of people covering your songs, they must have something. If I was me, I'd cover my songs too."

We hope you enjoy this playlist. Happy birthday, Bob. Here's to many more.

Copyright 2023 XPN

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Bruce Warren is assistant general manager for programming of WXPN in Philadelphia. Besides serving as executive producer of World Café, Warren also contributes to Paste magazine and writes for two blogs: Some Velvet Blog and WXPN's All About The Music Blog.
Miguel Perez
Miguel Perez is a radio producer for NPR's World Cafe, based out of WXPN in Philadelphia. Before that, he covered arts, music and culture for KERA in Dallas. He reported on everything from the rise of NFTs in the music industry to the enduring significance of gay and lesbian bars to the LGBTQ community in North Texas.